Inspiron 15r SE 7520 randomly turns off

Hi there,

I have a Inspiron 7520 which is quite old now. It worked well for years, but a couple of weeks ago started making a loud whirring noise. From reading other forum posts about this model, I am pretty sure it was from the fan (laptop has always been pretty hot). The noise would start whenever the laptop had to do more processor-heavy tasks, like play video or games, or run multiple applications.

I should have done more about it, but all I did was try and blow out the vents, which helped a bit. Anyway, the noise stopped this week, but now the laptop just turns off without warning. It turns off at around the same time the fan would have become loud - ie. when it was having to do more than just browse the 'net (which I can do for hours without an issue - it just dies if i try to play a game, etc).

From reading other forums and some googling, my guess is the fan might have stopped working altogether, and now the laptop just turns off when the fan would have kicked in.

Can anyone confirm if my analysis might be right? And if so, would replacing the fan solve the problem, or is the damage more serious / widespread now?

Thanks, Tom.